Wednesday, September 5, 2012

August Review (AKA "I'm back!")

{This post was nearly ready to go 5 days ago, but somehow I lost most of what I wrote because my computer crashed, and for some (still unknown) reason, Blogger didn't autosave. Since then it's been a whirlwind of last-weekend-of-summer and back-to-school activities. But finally today I went back to salvage what I had written and made up tried to remember the rest! So, here's my August review post!}

Wow... it's September! Where did summer go? I must say I have loved this summer and fully plan to continue enjoying every last bit of it that I can! Fall doesn't officially start for a few more weeks, despite all the fall crafting and decorating posts I've seen lately :)

Well, you may have noticed that I didn't blog much in August so there won't be a lot to review here in terms of blog posts. I wasn't planning to take a "blog break" but a lot of things about this summer were different than I had expected.

The key thing that happened that we hadn't anticipated was that my hubby worked every weekday for the entire summer. He's a relief letter carrier for Canada Post and after not working for 3 straight months after his initial training this spring, we didn't know what to expect for summer. We figured he's get some work (and we hoped he'd get a lot for financial reasons!) but we didn't expect he'd work every single day.

He was a trooper...especially in the heat and humidity that we had for nearly the entire summer here. But it meant no mid-week day trips as a family and a lot of inside (air conditioned) evenings and weekends so he could rest and regain his strength. And it also meant I was the sole stay-at-home parent this summer for the first time ever (I worked full-time up until the end of last summer).

If you remember at the beginning of the summer I wrote a post called "Organizing Our Summer" and I said that I was stretching myself a bit to not plan out and organize every minute of our summer. I wanted to savour the moments as they arose and enjoy being home with my kids. I think I accomplished that goal. But in doing so, I chose to not spend time blogging. I didn't really intend it to happen or for it to be as extensive as it was, but as the summer progressed I realized how precious this time with my kids was and blogging was one of the things I chose to give up.

Even though I wasn't blogging much in August, it was still quite a busy month with social media and blog-building activities. And some of my usual categories for reviewing the month still apply.

This title goes to Google+ For the Blog. This is largely because it's the only post this month but I also think Google+ has been gaining some popularity among bloggers this month.

My Favourite Post:

Well, not much to choose from here :) Obviously this goes to Google+ For The Blog as well. But I also really enjoyed getting to know more about Google+ this month. It was a learning curve as expected at first but I'm getting the hang of it and I have enjoyed getting to know people that I wouldn't have if I wasn't on Google+. For people who don't know what Google+ is, it's Google's version of Facebook, but has the added benefit of improving where you show up in Google searches. I've seen a definite increase in referrals to my blog posts from Google searches since I've started using Google+.

Other Posts From This Month:

Clearly nothing to put in this category this month!

Previous Months' Posts That Were Popular This Month:

1. Garage Clean Out Part 2 continued to be well-read this month. Summer is a time that many people organize their garages and hopefully I was able to provide some tips to help people make their garages less overwhelming.2. Organizing Our Hall Closet was popular in August again too. With such a hot and dry summer we barely touched a lot of the things in that closet but we made great use of the basket of BBQ tools!3. The Purging and Storing Leftover Paint post was also viewed quite a bit again this month. Pinterest breathes new life into this post every once in awhile.

Highlights This Month:

1. Starting a Google+ page for the blog and beginning to build it up. 44 people have circled the blog's G+ page and over 500 have circled my personal G+ page. That wasn't the goal (I really didn't want to use my personal page initially) but I found out that I can't invite or circle people from the blog's G+ page (until they circle me first) so I've been reaching out to people on my personal G+ page and inviting them to circle the blog's G+ page. I'm amazed at the number of people who have circled my personal page so I may have to rethink having both pages :) If you're on Google+ and haven't followed the From Overwhelmed To Organized G+ page yet, you can click hereto do that! I try to keep the content different on Google+ and Facebook so people who follow in both places won't get duplicate information.

2. I doubled the number of people who like the From Overwhelmed To Organized Facebook page and there are now over 150 fans! If you haven't "liked" the From Overwhelmed To Organized page yet, I'd love for you to do so. I share organizing tips and articles as well as share some of the projects I'm working on before they turn up on the blog. I love interacting with people here. Thanks for all the "likes" and comments this month!3. I hit another milestone on the blog this month in terms of pageviews. I reached over 1000 pageviews for My Daughter Has Too Much Clothing! this month. I'm also approaching 20,000 total pageviews. Again, these numbers may not be impressive compared to some blogs but I'm so happy that people are interested in what I write about. And while I don't do this for the numbers, it's nice to see growth to motivate me to keep going :)

Goals From Last Month:

1. Start a From Overwhelmed To Organized Google+ page.Done!2. Spend time building up my "circles" on Google+Also done (but I will continue to do this every month).3. Incorporate tips for readers to help you move from overwhelmed to organized too!Well, with only one post I didn't really do this. But, I did share lots of tips and organizational ideas on Facebook and Google+.

Goals For Next Month:

1. Start a From Overwhelmed To Organized Pinterest page. I'm really excited about this one!

2. Post 2-3 times per week as well as a weekly "quick organizing tip" post. {Any suggestions for names for this weekly feature?}

3. Spend time getting to know new people on Pinterest, Facebook, and Google+.So that's my look back on the month of August. Stay tuned for posts in September on my son's room, our kitchen, and back-to-school organization.

Once again, I am so grateful that you have taken the time to join me on this journey from overwhelmed to organized!

Nice to meet you on Google+!You are summing up your most popular blogs and so, but you can have them posted on the side. Look under Layout, than click Add a Gadget and look scroll down to Popular Posts.For your blog you also should show the LinkWithin thumbnails below each post. That will help readers find interesting posts and read them. It is real easy: http://bit.ly/nGfu9FGood luck and hugs to you,Mariette

I love hearing from my readers! This is a great place to ask questions, answer questions, and share your organizing tips. Thank you so much for commenting! I look forward to getting to know you better :)

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